As an open skies agreement between the European Union and the United States takes effect next year, note the importance of Michael Whitaker’s remark that “one of the principal obstacles for service from Denver to London was this restriction on Heathrow, and that obstacle will now be eliminated.”

As United’s senior vice president of alliances, Whitaker knows that the Denver-London is by far and away the largest international origin and destination market and that without the bilateral ability to serve this route, it has not made economic sense for United to think about a real international hub based in Denver.

An international hub is based on operational economies of scale, including the rotation of planes and staff. That means multiple, long-haul flights and equipment, especially since Denver requires a plane-and-a-half for service to Europe (can’t quite make a roundtrip in 24 hours, including ground time).

Without a Denver designation to Heathrow, United finally acquiesced to letting its Star Alliance partner, Lufthansa, serve the market to/from Germany. The power of their combined reservation systems ensures that passengers from behind the Denver gateway can get to Frankfurt (and now Munich!) as well as Denver passengers traveling beyond the hubs in Germany. And the convenience of nonstop service is an uncontested necessity in the promotion of trade, investment and tourism.

As economic development leaders have stated that their international air service goals are ‘on to Asia’, they should pause and welcome the EU-US agreement that might finally bring United to the table to serve Denver with real international flights. United was recent ‘winner’ of an air service China route case and awarded a coveted route between China and the U.S. (Beijing-Washington D.C.) The only hope we have of service to Asia is to Tokyo, either from United or ANA, an alliance partner with flights from beyond Japan. This new agreement puts the whole ‘shebang’ back on the table and is welcome news to promoters of Colorado that are willing to work incessantly with United to prove that we are worthy of a real international hub.

Vincent Carroll is The Denver Post's editorial page editor. He has been writing commentary on politics and public policy in Colorado since 1982 and was originally with the Rocky Mountain News, where he was also editor of the editorial pages until that newspaper gave up the ghost in 2009.

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